Breathing
by Wildhorseatheart
Summary: Castiel gets a surprise when a letter arrives addressed to him. His twin sister, Caity, is coming to live with him. Together, they will have to work through their problems while trying to regenerate the relationship they had when they were little. Warning: Deals with an eating disorder. Don't read if you can't handle. You have been warned.
1. Chapter 1

_Dear Castiel,_

 _I know you don't like to hear from me, but this is an emergency. It's about Caity. She's anorexic. She can't stay here any longer, it's getting worse and worse. I wouldn't ask this of you if I didn't have any other options. So, can Caity go stay with you? I'm sorry, I know you like your own space, but I need to something about Caity before she starves herself to death. Her father isn't making this any easier either. Please consider this._

 _Love,_

 _Mom_

 _Castiel stared at the letter. Caity was anorexic now? That was not good. And it was all because of their good for nothing father. He couldn't subject her to anymore of that sort of treatment. So he grabbed a pen, a stamp, and an envelope, then sat down at his desk._

 _Dear Mom,_

 _Send Caity here. She can come this Saturday. I'll see her then._

 _Castiel_

The sun was setting as the plane touched the ground. A 16 year old girl stepped out, though she looked like she couldn't be more than 12. Her hair was white blonde and reached her waist. Her eyes were grey changed shades depending on her now, her eyes were a sparkling grey, matching her nervous and excited teen was ready for a new beginning, a new start. One away from her verbally and every once in awhile, physically abusive father. One where she could hopefully overcome her eating disorder and learn to love herself again. One that came with a twin brother that she hadn't seen in six years.

Caity grabbed her suitcase, struggling as she hauled it onto the ground. Thank goodness that it was a rolling suitcase. She started looking for her brother. She hadn't seen him in 6 years, so she didn't know what to expect. Finally, her eyes landed on an obviously fake red haired boy that resembled what she remembered her brother looking like. He looked at her and his face blanched when he saw her. "Caity?"

Caity nodded, "Castiel?"

He nodded, "Mom told me that you were having… um… issues, but I didn't know that it had gotten this bad." He tried to stop gaping at her really small and frail frame. She had always been small for her age, but she was 16 now, and couldn't have been taller than 5'. Her face was really pale and he could probably span her waist with his hands.

"Yeah… um… well… I am getting slightly better. Anyways, that's why I'm here, right?"

"Yup, so let's get you home. The town's about a two hour drive from the airport so maybe you could take a nap?... Or not," he added after he saw my expression. "I really don't care what you do as long as you don't start bitching about something." Castiel threw her suitcase in back of his truck and gave her a hand up. Her hand was so small compared to his.

"Bitching? Where exactly do you think I grew up? The last time I bitched about anything resulted in one of the only beatings I've ever gotten." _And when the anorexia started._

"Right. I guess I haven't been around enough normal girls lately. The ones at school are almost always bitching about anything that they can thing to bitch about. It's annoying."

"Are they all like that?" Caity's worried tone caused Castiel to realize what he implied.

"No, there's one girl that I can sort of stand. Her name's Rosalya. She's Lysander's older brother's girlfriend, so I kind of have to hang out with her sometimes."

"Oh." Caity fell silent, lost in thought. Apparently, Castiel doesn't have a girlfriend then. Or many friends. I wonder if he still plays basketball? She decided that maybe asking him wouldn't be terrible. "Hey, um, Castiel?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you still play basketball?"

"Well, I'm a part of the basketball club, but i can't play in any games because of the stupid school's rules on grades."

"Oh. That sucks."

"Yeah."

"What about you, do you still do any sports or anything like that?"

"No."

"Oh."

They finally pulled up to his apartment building. "This is it," He jumped out of the truck, helped Caity down, and then grabbed her suitcase. They walked into the apartment building and stepped into the elevator. "We're on the third floor," He told her.

Caity nodded, still trying to get over the shock of her brother's hair. It used to be black, but now it was really red, almost blood red. She wondered what had prompted the change, but knew that she couldn't ask. It wasn't her business, really, just like it wasn't his business why she stopped eating and doing everything. She supposed that they'd open up to each other again eventually. They had been close once. Six years is a long time, though. Way too long for twins to be apart. Now it was like meeting a stranger. The elevator finally came to a stop and they stepped off, walking to apartment number 303. Castiel pulled his keys from his pocket and unlocked the apartment door. "Well, here we are. Your new home." He showed her where her room was and helped her unpack a little. "Dinner's in a half an hour."

"Ok," Caity looked around her new room. It wasn't bad and the view out of her window was pretty good. Anyways, it sure beat her old room. Mostly because her old room was too much of a reminder. This new start would be good for her. Well, at the very least, it would be better than before. It couldn't be any worse, that's for sure.

While Caity was unpacking, Castiel was trying to solve the problem of dinner. He knew that he had to get Caity to eat something, but he wasn't sure what she would willingly eat. He grumbled to himself. He would probably have to always be around her while she ate. That meant sitting with her at lunch at school and having "family" dinners. He opened the door to his fridge. There was nothing even remotely healthy in there, which sucked because he was pretty positive that the only way for Caity to eat something would be if it were healthy. Then he remembered something. There was a tuna casserole in the freezer that he threw in there a couple of weeks ago from when he ate supper at Lysander's and he made him take some home. He popped it into the oven for a little while and when it was done, called Caity for dinner.

Caity came walking in. She looked at what they were eating and wondered where in the world Castiel had gotten that.

Castiel noticed her look and explained, "My friend Lysander insisted on me taking it home one day after I had supper at his house when I had forgotten to go shopping and had run out of food."

"That explains it," Caity replied as she sat down and served herself and Castiel. "I probably have to go shopping, don't I?"

"Yeah," Castiel dug in.

It seemed like he wasn't going to initiate any conversation. I guess I'll just have to reach out first, then. "So, is Lysander the one in the band with you?"

Castiel looked up, "Yeah, you into musical guys now?"

"Shut up! I was just trying to make conversation!" Caity blushed. "Besides, I have no interest in guys right now."

"Oh, so you swing the other way?" Castiel smirked, he'd forgotten how fun it was to tease his sister.

"No! I'm straight! I just feel like I should deal with my own issues first." She stared at her half eaten piece of casserole.

Castiel immediately sobered up. "Do you want to talk?" He didn't really know how to deal with this sort of thing, but he figured that maybe talking about it would help her. So long as the kids at school never found out about this.

Caity shrugged. "Not really. But, it would probably be best if I went grocery shopping as soon as possible. There are certain things that I will eat."

Castiel nodded. "You have your driver's license, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then you can take the truck. Here's the keys. Do you have a credit card?"

"Yes, Mom gave me one. She'll take care of the bills and everything, same as she does for you."

"Good, I'll see you later. I'm just going to watch some TV."

"Ok, bye!" Caity left. She plugged in the address to the nearest grocery store and headed there. At the store, she started looking around for stuff that she could eat. Vegetables were always good. Fruit was also always acceptable. She grabbed a head of lettuce, some tomatoes, a couple of cucumbers, and a package of carrots. She then went for fruit, grabbing bananas, oranges, plums, and peaches. None of it was canned. Canned stuff was filled with preservatives that were terrible for you.

At the deli, she got some sliced lunch meat and cheese. She'd been okay so far, but then she hit the bread aisle. The internal battle immediately started. _You have to eat bread. **But it makes you fat**. Do you want to die? **I can't gain any more weight**. A slice or two a day isn't going to magically make you gain five pounds. **I'm trying to lose five pounds!** You're already at an unhealthy weight! You're practically committing suicide! **But I'm still not thin enough**! Yes, you are! **There's fat everywhere! I'm ugly!** No one's ugly! Everyone's pretty in there own way. **That's just a lie people tell you. Only thin girls are pretty.** Weight doesn't define beauty. **Yes, it does!** No, it doesn't! **Yes, it does!** No! **Yes!** No! **Yes!**_

A teenage boy, probably about Caity's age watched this struggle, sensing that something was seriously wrong. He walked over to her, puzzled. Something about her seemed familiar, but he couldn't place it. "Um, excuse me ma'am, but are you okay?" The teen looked more closely at her and was shocked to find tears running down her face.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Caity's voice wobbled a little as she bit her lip and turned away, mentally berating herself even more for crying.

"Pardon me if I'm prying, but are you sure that you are fine?"

Caity turned back to him and nodded, surprised to find him dressed like he walked right out of the Victorian era. She supposed it made sense though, his manner of speech matched his clothing style. "You're not prying. And yes, I'm sure that I'm fine," she whispered, trying to discreetly wipe her eyes. Then, something hit her. Castiel's friend Lysander wore Victorian clothes and from what she could remember about the very few pictures that Castiel sent of him, looked vaguely like the boy standing in front of her. "Um," she hesitated.

"Yes?"

"Are-Are you by any chance Lysander?" She stuttered out.

"Yes, I am. Who then are you? You seem familiar to me, yet I cannot recall exactly where I've seen you before."

"Actually, we've probably never met before. My older brother is your best friend. I'm Caity Stewart." Caity gained a little bit of confidence after she realized who he was and held her hand out for him to shake.

Lysander's eyebrows shot up. Castiel had told him about his sister coming, but he had failed to mention that his sister had an eating disorder. At least, he assumed that that was what she had because of her thinness, the healthy stuff in the cart, and the obvious struggle about buying bread. Lysander shook her hand, "Castiel told me that his sister was coming. It is nice to meet you. As you already know, I am Lysander Lawson."

Caity smiled awkwardly. She had no idea that Lysander was so hot! Even in all of his Victorian clothing, he still managed to look modern somehow. He had dyed white hair with the tips dyed black. His eyes were beautiful! One was gold and the other was green. Then, she realized that she had been staring. "Sorry," she blushed. "I didn't mean to stare, it's just, your eyes, they're so…"

"Weird, strange? Take your pick. I've heard them all," Lysander's voice turned slightly bitter.

"No, I was going to say something more along the lines of beautiful or stunning. I guess some people just don't recognize beauty when they see it," Caity blushed an even brighter red when she realized what she said. _He must think I'm so weird!_

"Thank you. This is one of the first times that someone has said that about my eyes."

"You're welcome," Caity looked down at the floor.

Lysander tried to think of a way to get her to buy bread. Maybe if I make it seem like it's for Castiel? "I couldn't help but notice that you seemed to have trouble picking out a loaf of bread. I think that Castiel would like this kind best," He said, as he pulled a low calorie, low fat loaf down from the shelf and placed into her cart.

Caity looked up in surprise, "Uh, yeah, probably," she stumbled over her words. She couldn't believe that he had picked up on her internal battle and tried to help. But what Lysander didn't know is that he only solved the first of many problems. Now that she was buying the bread, the next struggle would be over eating it. She shook her head to bring herself out of reality. That could be dealt with later. "Thank you."

"No problem," Lysander replied. "I guess I'll see you in school tomorrow?"

"Yeah, see you then!"

"See you!" Lysander checked out and left the store, having totally forgotten half the things on his list as a result of meeting Caity.

Caity watched him leave before grabbing the last few things she needed and checking out herself. After she had gotten home and put her groceries away, she decided that it was time for her to get ready for bed. When she was all ready for bed, she did the last thing that was apart of her nighttime ritual, she stepped onto the scale and read it. _85 pounds. Not bad. But still not good enough._ She then crawled into bed, immediately falling asleep. But unbeknownst to her, she had accidentally said her weight out loud.

Castiel heard it as he was walking past her door on the way to his room. _85 pounds? This is much worse than I originally thought for. I am DEFINITELY going to need to monitor her food intake. I'll start in the morning._


	2. Chapter 2

**Here it is! Chapter 2! Just a quick disclaimer before the story: I DO NOT OWN MCL! I REPEAT, I DO NOT OWN MCL! CHINOMiKO/BEEMOVE GANES DOES! Okay, now on to the story. Happy reading!**

"C'mon Caity! It's just one slice of toast. You can eat it," Castiel urged her. He kneeled down beside her chair, holding the toast up to her mouth.

"No, I can't! I can't!" Caity cried.

"You have to, Caity. You're going to starve yourself to death!"

Caity started sobbing. She couldn't do this. She had already had a yogurt, she couldn't eat a piece of toast too! Toast had way too many calories. Besides, she look good for her first day of school. That meant thin.

"Caity!" She turned her head away. "Caity! Look at me!" He grabbed her chin and turned her head towards himself. "You have to eat this. It won't kill you. Not eating it will kill you. Now, c'mon," he ripped a piece off. "Eat this." Castiel shoved it into her mouth.

Caity started chewing, still crying as Castiel forced her to eat. "Now eat this," Castiel had to practically force feed her the rest of the toast. He didn't understand why it was so hard for her to eat one little piece of toast. Well, to be fair, she probably didn't understand why he had dyed his hair and smoked.

Caity washed her face and reapplied her makeup, thinking about the recent ordeal. She couldn't give into him again. She was too fat. Wait, she wasn't supposed to be thinking like that anymore. _Maybe the stress of a new school brought on a relapse. It's possible._ At least, Castiel had eventually got food in her. He was being really nice, which was strange. Then again, she was pretty fragile right now. She still figured it would change when they got to school. Especially since she realized that he had become a "bad" boy at school. She didn't know what caused it though. And it wasn't her business anyway.

At school, Castiel ditched her at the door to the student council room with strict instructions to wait in the stairwell for Castiel when it was time for lunch and to stay away from the student body president after she dealt with what needed to be dealt with. Apparently, he had a problem with the "stuck-up, blonde idiot who has a stick up his ass". _I guess I'll see what he's like for myself._

She pushed open the door to the student council room. "Are you Nathaniel?" She asked the blonde haired boy sitting at the desk.

"Yes, are you Caity Stewart?"

"Yes, I came to see about my registration forms." He was gorgeous! He was wearing a button up shirt with khakis and a tie. His eyes were gold and he reminded her of an angel with his golden hair. A little too perfect for her tastes, though.

"Okay, all you need to do is get your picture taken for your student ID and pay the registration fee. Also, it seems that you're missing one of your forms. The one with the parent signature."

"Are you sure? I checked everything myself. I thought I sent everything in."

Nathaniel pinched the bridge of his nose, as if he had a headache, and let out a deep breath, "That's okay, I'll keep my eye out for it. In the meantime, why don't you get your ID and registration fee out of the way?"

"Okay, thanks," Caity walked out, mentally complaining. _I shouldn't have to pay to join the stupid school! And why couldn't they have told me this beforehand?_ When she reached the courtyard, she headed straight for Castiel who was leaning against a tree, earbuds in and eyes closed.

She poked him and ripped one of his earbuds out of his ear.

"Hey! What was that for?" He snapped, eyes blazing.

"I just need twenty bucks and you to give me the keys to the truck so I can find the dollar store!" _Sheesh! You'd think I'd just punched him or something!_

"Oh, it's you," He turned to face me. "Why do you need the keys? It's in walking distance," he handed me a twenty and a ten.

"Well, um, I kinda can't walk that far." Caity took the money from him. "Wait, I only asked for a twenty."

"The ten is for your ID picture, dumbass. It's not free, you know. And why can't you walk that far?"

"It's a side effect," Caity whispered quietly, her face turning red.

"Of what?" Then Castiel got it. "Ohhhhh, here, take the keys."

Caity grabbed them and left as quickly as possible, glad that Castiel didn't make her spell out the fact that she was too weak to walk even that short distance. She would probably faint.

At the dollar store, a man sat behind a counter at the back of the very small store. Caity noticed that there was a backdrop with a camera in the corner and a couple rows of snack food and stuff that made her cringe.

"Hello, how may I help you?" The dollar store guy asked.

Caity looked at him, "I need an ID picture for school."

"Ok, step right this way," he led her to the backdrop and seated her before snapping the picture. Then he handed her the ID. "Here you go, that'll be ten dollars."

She handed him the money and thanked him. Back at the school, Caity found the student council room again and turned in her ID and money. "Did you find my form?"

"No, I didn't, but you can get your parents to fill out another one." His calmness was infuriating.

"Um, I can fill it out myself." Caity didn't really want to explain her situation.

"Well, you can fill out part of it, but it _requires_ a parent signature," he started to get a little bit irritated.

"Actually, um, I can fill it out. I'm legally independent." She grabbed the form and filled it out, signing the bottom with a flourish.

"Oh, another independent? At least you don't seem as rude as the other."

Caity giggled, "People do usually say that I got the nice genes in the family."

"In the family?" Nathaniel glanced at her registration papers. "You're Castiel's sister." He suddenly looked quite annoyed.

It wasn't a question and she wasn't keen on dealing with whatever his issue with her brother was, so she didn't respond. She just handed in her form and left. Once out of the student council room, Caity realized that it was between third and fourth period. All that running around had caused her to miss her first two classes. She eventually found the room and walked in. Caity scanned the room looking for a good seat. Castiel was in this class and sitting in the back. She was pretty sure that he wouldn't to sit next to her, so she plopped down in a seat near the window in the middle row. A white haired girl sat next to her and immediately began talking.

"Hi, I'm Rosalya. You're Caity, right?" Caity nodded. "I figured as much. We don't get many new students and you look a lot like Castiel. You both have those gray eyes that look like they could kill you when you're mad, but sparkle when you're happy. Except Castiel is rarely happy. So, do you like it here so far?"

"Um, well, yeah, it's good. Definitely different than my old school though."

"In a good or bad way?"

"In a good way." Then, the teacher called for order. Caity was glad. It saved her from elaborating on her response. She didn't feel like explaining everything to someone who she had just met. Even though she did know Castiel and might already know some things.

After class, Rosalya asked her to sit with her at lunch. "Well, um, thanks for asking, but I'm meeting up with Castiel for lunch."

"Oh?" Her eyebrows rose. "He doesn't seem like the type to be all protective older brother."

Caity shrugged. "I think he just wants to make sure that I'm still alive."

"I'll see you later then. Maybe you can eat lunch with us tomorrow?"

"Maybe," _Though I highly doubt that. I'm pretty sure Castiel's going to make me sit with him every day to make sure that I'll eat._

After she retrieved her lunch from her locker, Caity headed towards the stairwell.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" A blonde with her two friends stepped into her path. The blonde gave her a once over. "Between you and the other boy, we really didn't get that lucky this year, did we girls?" The trio tittered.

Caity's face flushed. The blonde spoke stepped closer to her. "Just stay away from Castiel and Nathaniel and you'll be fine, you understand?" Caity heard the menacing tone to her voice and saw her standing above her and it sparked a memory. One she had desperately tried to forget. Though in this instance, it was her father standing above her.

" _ **Just stay out of my business and you'll be fine, you understand? I don't know why you can't just be normal. You're too much like your brother. Maybe this will solve it." A belt came flying down on her back, adding to the freshly cut marks already there.**_

"Hello? Am I understood?"

Caity glanced up at her, "Yeah." They walked away, chattering about some stupid thing. Caity, meanwhile, started hyperventilating. _He's not here. He's not here. He's not here._ She rubbed her back and tried to shake it off. _But it felt so real!_ And then she dropped to her knees, a panic attack taking over. Tears fell and she kept whispering, "It hurts, it hurts! Someone help me!" She tried to remember what the school counselor told her to do. _Breathe. Breathe! BREATHE!_ And then she realized that it wasn't only her voice that she was hearing. A guy was standing over her. Not just any guy, Lysander.

"Breathe, it is okay. Just breathe. In and out. In and out. That's it!" Lysander encouraged. Once she had started breathing normally again, he helped her up and to the stairwell to meet Castiel.

At the stairwell, Castiel was mad. "What took you guys so long?" He grumbled. Then he noticed Lysander's arm around his twin and that she was still breathing a little heavy. Her eyes were also red and a little puffy. His tone softened, "What happened?" He moved over to her and tilted her chin up.

"I had a panic attack." Caity moved her chin out of his grasp to look at the floor.

"What caused it?" Castiel's tone turned angry again. _No one hurts my sister!_

"Um, three girls came up to me and told me to stay away from you and Mr. Perfect and it kind of, um, triggered a, um, memory."

"Amber." He growled. "She's going to pay." Castiel started for the door.

"No, wait! I'm fine, Castiel. Amber didn't hurt me." Caity tried to stop him.

Lysander grabbed his shoulders and looked him in the eye. "Caity's fine. You can not go confront Amber in this mood. The last thing you and Caity need is you getting in trouble for hitting a girl. Now, you both need to eat lunch."

Castiel realized that he was right and sighed, still fuming as he stomped up the stairs, pulling out a key and opening a door that said **Staff Only.**

Caity smirked, "What'd ya do? Steal a master key?"

Castiel laughed, "Yup. That's what I did."

"Sneaky. When did ya do it?"

"I stole it from the student council room."

"Nice!"

"Caity, shouldn't you be discouraging him from this sort of stuff?" Lysander asked.

Caity shrugged. "It's not killing him, is it? Plus, I like to think that it's better than not going to school at all."

"True," Lysander replied, as he got his lunch out and set it down next to where he was sitting on the ground.

Caity stepped to the edge of the roof. "Sweet Amoris is tiny! But it looks pretty from up here."

"Yes, the view is quite beautiful," Lysander agreed.

Castiel started eating a slice of pizza as he sat down on a bench. "Ew! How can you stand to eat that?" Caity asked, sitting down the bench next to Castiel as she opened her lunch box and took out a salad.

"Easy. It tastes way better than whatever the hell you're eating."

"It does not! I'll have you know that salad is very tasty. And it's healthy."

"All healthy food is disgusting. In fact, the very word healthy makes me sick."

"Castiel!" Lysander reprimanded. "Healthy food is good, but it doesn't hurt to splurge and eat something unhealthy every once in awhile."

"Right," Caity replied unconvincingly, as she continued picking at her salad.

"Caity," Castiel's voice held and unspoken warning. _You had better eat that. All of it._ She quickly took a bite of salad.

Lysander pretended not to notice this exchange, "So, are we having practice after school today?"

Castiel nodded, glad for the distraction, "Yeah."

"Wait, practice? As in band practice?"

"That would be correct," Lysander affirmed.

"What am I supposed to do? We live to far away for me to walk home!"

"I don't know. Figure something out."

"Well you're helpful!"

"I try."

"I hate you. But seriously, what am I supposed to do?"

"Get your own car." Castiel was mad. He didn't know what to do. The force feeding was bad enough. He couldn't be her babysitter too!

"Castiel!" Lysander's voice was sharp. He then turned to Caity. "You could probably watch us play."

"Hell, no." She was NOT watching them play.

"Or you could go with Rosa to my brother's clothing shop."

"Rosa?"

"Yes, Rosalya. I believe she had fourth period with you?"

"Yeah. She wouldn't mind?"

"Not at all. Actually, she would probably love it. I'll talk to her during seventh period. It should work out."

"Okay, thanks. You'd make a _way_ better brother than Castiel."

"Hey! I helped you with registration this morning. And ate lunch with you!"

"You weren't very amiable during lunch though." Castiel looked ready to punch someone. "Calm down, I'm only joking."

"Very funny."

"We should probably be heading back downstairs now. It's almost time for the next class period to start."

They all headed downstairs. Lysander opened the stairwell door for them and Caity paused as she was going through, "Thanks, Lys. You don't have to do this."

"No, but I want to. I will see you later, okay?"

"Okay, bye!" Caity walked to her next class, her mind already thinking about the end of the day. _I wonder what it's going to be like._

 **Thanks for reading! Don't forget to follow, fav, and review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here is chapter 3! I finally finished. Sorry that it takes so long for me to update. I'm just lazy sometimes. Anyways, enjoy!**

At the end of the day, Caity found Rosalya waiting for her out in the courtyard. "There you are! C'mon, my car's this way," Rosa led her to her car, which was a purple Jeep, and unlocked the doors.

Caity hopped in the passenger side and put her backpack at her feet. "So where exactly are we going?"

"We're going to my boyfriend's store. It's not that far."

"How long have you been together with your boyfriend?"

"Two years. Though we almost broke up once. Thank goodness for Gabby."

"Gabby?"

"Castiel never mentioned her?" Caity shook her head. "Huh, that's weird, they were pretty close."

"He barely wrote home."

"Oh, yeah, he doesn't seem like the type to do that."

"So, did Gabby used to go to Sweet Amoris?"

"Yes, she was here for most of freshman year. Everybody loved her. Even Castiel warmed up to her. I thought there was something going on between them, but Castiel's ex decided to show up. Things got real ugly and Gabby was practically ostracized. I'm not sure what she would've done if Lys-baby and I hadn't stuck by her. Then, she had to leave because of a family emergency. Castiel's regretted what happened with her ever since. I think that you'll be good for him though."

"Huh."

"What?"

"It's just interesting. Maybe I'll be able to get Castiel's side eventually."

"I doubt it."

"Well, he knows about my-" Caity stopped when she realized what she was about to say.

"Your what?"

"Nothing." Caity turned away.

"C'mon, you have to tell me."

"No!" Caity shook her head. Luckily, just then they arrived at the clothing store. Caity quickly grabbed her bag and jumped out of the car.

Rosalya laughed, "You're gonna have to tell me eventually, you know!"

"Nope!" Caity said, opening the door to the clothing store and walking in. She stopped in her tracks. "Wow!" She had never seen a store like that before. It had a lot of different styles. There was even a whole Victorian era clothing section! Now she knew where Lysander got his clothes.

Rosa came up behind her, "It is pretty awesome, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Caity was slowly turning circles, trying to take everything in.

"I'm going to go say hi Leigh. Feel free to make yourself at home." Rosa ran off to the back of the store to greet Leigh.

Caity just kept looking around. It had been so long since she'd been able to go to a clothing store. She had no idea where to go first! There were just too many options. Then, the door chimed. Caity quickly slipped behind a rack of clothes.

"Come on!" A blue haired boy exclaimed. "I went to that boring gaming store with you! Now you have to come to a clothing store with me! It was the deal!" He was dragging a grumbling black haired boy in behind him.

"I don't even know why I agreed to that stupid deal."

"You did it because you needed an extra hand to carry all of the games you wanted! Hurry up! Rosa's probably already here!"

"Ugh."

"Alexy!" Rosa ran over, tugging Leigh along with her. "Leigh's going to help Caity pick something out. Speaking of her, where did Caity run off to?"

The said girl appeared from behind the coat rack. "Oh, there you are! Have you met Leigh? Leigh, Caity. Caity, Leigh." They shook hands. "And this is Alexy and Armin. They're twins too!"

"Awwwwww, she's so adorable!" Alexy squeezed her.

"Um, not to be rude or anything, but I kind of need to breathe."

"Oh, sorry! You're just too cute!"

"I apologize for Alexy. He can be a little overwhelming when you first meet him." Armin looked down at Caity, wondering why she looked so familiar.

"I can be overwhelming? You should see him when he meets another gamer!"

Rosa broke in, "Less arguing, more shopping!"

Armin looked at Alexy, "Can I leave now?"

"Fine." Armin ran out.

"Time to shop!" Rosa and Alexy ran off together, looking for the perfect outfit. Caity wandered around on her own, as Rosa and Alexy piled clothes for her to try on in her arms.

"That's enough for now," Rosalya finally said. "Time for you to try them on!"

Caity went into a changing room and locked the door behind her. It'd been ages since she'd changed in front of a mirror. She almost couldn't do it. After she took her top off, she immediately started critiquing herself, pointing out all the places with "fat" on her body. Her eyes started tearing up and she quickly turned away from the mirror. _I can't stand to even look at myself anymore!_ Caity put on one of the shirts that Rosa and Alexy picked out for her, along with a pair of jeans. The shirt was blue and flowy. It was kind of see through and had a darker blue cami attached to it underneath.

She stepped out of the dressing room, "How do I look?"

Both their mouths had dropped open, "That bad?" Caity asked.

Rosa was the first to regain her composure, "No, you're just so skinny!" Then she slapped a hand over her mouth, "Sorry, I didn't mean to say that! You look great!"

"Yeah, you do look great! Though you could go for a smaller size." Alexy commented, a slightly concerned expression on his face.

Rosa frowned, "You could probably use a smaller size, but this is pretty much the smallest that they have here."

Caity blushed, "I often have to shop in the kids section if the junior sizes don't go small enough."

"Are you going to buy that?"

"I'm not sure. It doesn't make me look fat, does it?" Caity tried out different poses in front of the mirror.

Alexy looked shocked, "Of course not! You could never look fat!" _I wonder if she has an eating disorder. Either that or she's really insecure. Or maybe just obsessed with looks?_

Rosa was thinking the same things. _Fat? What in the world is wrong with that girl? She's probably about five feet tall and she is so skinny! It's unhealthy!_

Meanwhile, Caity was still studying herself in the mirror. _It looks fine from this angle, but this one is a little off. Overall, it does look pretty good. I think I'll get it._ Out loud, she said, "I'll buy it."

"Okay!" Rosa led her to the cash register and Leigh rang her purchases up.

"Is this all?" He inquired.

"Yup," Caity replied, as she swiped her credit card.

"Okay, here you go!" Leigh handed her the clothes in a bag.

"Thanks!"

"You're welcome!" Leigh watched her walk off. The fashion industry had made him a little too familiar with eating disorders than he would like to be. _She looks like she might be anorexic. I shouldn't jump to conclusions though. She could just have a high metabolism._

As they walked away, Caity started to feel a little light-headed. "Um, Rosa, can we find a place to sit down?" The room started spinning.

"Yeah, what's wrong?"

"I feel a little diz-" Caity passed out. Luckily, Alexy was right there to catch her. He laid her carefully on the ground.

"Rosa, call Castiel!"

"On it!" Rosa dialed Castiel's number. _Pick up, pick up, pick up!_ "Shit, he didn't answer!"

"Try Lysander!"

Rosa then quickly called Lysander. "Lysander! Thank goodness you answered!"

"What's wrong?" Lysander asked. He could tell by her voice that something was seriously amiss.

"Caity passed out and I tried calling Castiel and he didn't answer and now we don't know what to do!"

"Castiel's right here, okay? I'm going to put him on. We're already on our way there. Just calm down, we will be there soon."

"Okay," Rosa sniffled.

"Rosalya?"

"Castiel! Caity passed out."

"Fuck! She promised me she was going to be fine! Damn it! I should've brought her with me! What happened exactly?"

"She had just checked out and we were walking towards the door and she asked if we could find a place to sit down, and I told her we could and asked what was wrong and then she started to say that she was dizzy and passed out."

"Damn it! You guys had been shopping for a while, right?"

"Yeah, about an hour or so."

"Shit!"

"What's wrong with Caity?" Rosa tried to ask, but Castiel had already hung up.

"What did Lys say?"

"Cas and him are on their way. I talked to Cas too and he didn't tell me what was wrong. He just swore a lot, found out what happened, and hung up."

"Huh, that's odd." At that moment, Lysander and Castiel showed up.

Castiel ran over and checked her pulse. "When was the last time she ate?"

"Probably at school," Rosa replied. "We didn't eat anything here."

"Fuck!" Castiel exclaimed. "She's an idiot!"

Lysander was a little more calm, "Does anyone have orange juice?"

Leigh answered, "Yeah, there's probably some up in the apartment. I can go get it."

"Okay, that would be good. Can somebody else go with him and get some ice water?"

"I will!" Rosa volunteered, and the two of them headed up to the Lawson's apartment above the shop.

After they left, Alexy's curiosity got the best of him, "What's wrong with Caity?"

Castiel looked at him, "It's not any of your business!"

"Ahem, what Castiel meant to say is that it is up to Caity who knows."

"Okay. But she's going to be fine, right?"

"Noooo, she's going to die. I mean, it's not like she only passed out or anything." Castiel's sarcasm sliced through the air like a knife.

"Castiel, that was not appreciated!" Lysander shot him a look. "Caity should be fine."

Leigh and Rosa came back. "She's going to kill me when she wakes up," Castiel smirked and dumped the ice cold water on her head.

Caity's eyelashes fluttered and her eyes opened, "Wha- what happened?"

"You passed out." Lysander stated.

"Wait, Lys? Castiel? How did you two get here? And why is there water on my face?"

"Caity! You scared the shit out of me! Don't you ever do that again!" Castiel scolded.

"Sorry," Caity mumbled.

"Yeah, you better be sorry. I had to leave band practice because you went and did something so fuckin' idiotic-"

"Here's some orange juice. You should probably get something to eat," Lysander interrupted. "Castiel's done yelling at you now, right?"

"Whatever."

Caity sipped the orange juice. "I feel better now."

"Are you going to tell us what exactly is wrong with you?" Alexy asked.

"No," Caity looked away. "It's personal."

"Then why does Lys-baby know?" Rosa queried.

"I don't know. I suppose he guessed or something. Unless Castiel told him?" Caity fixed a glare on Castiel.

"I'm innocent!" Castiel put his hands up. "I swear that I didn't tell him."

"Castiel is right. He did not tell me. He merely confirmed my suspicions." Lysander cleared up the confusion.

"Oh."

"I need to get Caity home." Castiel picked her up and started carrying her bridal style to his truck.

"Put me down! I can walk!" Caity shouted, flailing her arms and legs.

"After your little display earlier, you are not allowed to walk again until you've eaten. And we're discussing this incident later."

Caity gulped. _That doesn't sound good!_

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	4. Chapter 4

**Here is the fourth chapter! Sorry that it takes me forever to write new chapters, but this one is really long. That'll make up for it, right? I've just been really busy with school lately. Anyways, enjoy!**

 **Quick note: The big italicized section in the story is a flashback in Castiel's point of view.**

Castiel stormed into the apartment, setting Caity down in a chair at the table and slamming cupboard doors as he found something for Caity to eat.

"Here," he shoved a plate across the table to her from where he had sat down at. "Eat."

Caity looked down at the plate. On it was a chicken salad. She pushed it back. "I can't eat this. It's too big and I don't eat that kind of meat."

Castiel looked at the salad and then at Caity. "You have to eat this!" Caity stubbornly shook her head no. He slammed his fist on the table. "Goddamnit, Caity! Do you want to die?"

"No, I just want to be thin."

"Caity, there's thin and there's **thin**. You are way too skinny. You have to eat this. You can't keep fainting like that. You scared the shit out of everybody. I can't force feed you every time you need to eat." He pushed the salad across the table to her again. "Now, eat!"

Caity took a bite, slowly chewing and swallowing. Her eyes started filling up. "I'm sorry that I worried you. I just, I just, oh forget it. I don't know how to explain it."

"That's why we're signing you up for counseling. I'm going to call Mom right now and get her to pay for it. God knows you need it."

"I don't want counseling! I'm fine!"

"Caity, you are not fine! You know as well as I do that there is something seriously wrong. You just can't admit it to yourself!"

Caity started to full out cry. "I-I-I can d-do this b-by my-myself! C-counseling is f-for w-weirdos!"

"Counseling is for people who need help. You clearly need help. While I'm calling Mom, finish that salad. And you better eat every single piece of chicken. Or I will force feed another whole salad to you."

Caity, still sobbing, continued to eat her salad. _There's nothing really wrong with me. I don't need counseling!_

Castiel dialed their mom's number.

"Mom?"

"Castiel! I can't believe you called! How are you and Caity doing? Your dad's at work so I can talk as long as you want!"

"Um, I'm doing fine, but Caity, well, not so much."

"Oh my goodness! What happened?"

"She passed out today."

"From not eating enough?"

"Yup."

"I thought she was getting better. She was eating a little more when I decided to send her to you."

"I think she needs counseling."

"So that's why you called. To see if I'd pay for her counseling," her voice was a little sad, but she said anyways, "Yeah, I'll pay for it. Let me know how much it costs and I'll send that much monthly."

"Okay, thanks," Castiel felt a little bad. It seemed like the only times that he called home were to ask for money. He'd make it up to her someday. For now though, he had to get back to Caity to make sure that she ate that salad. "I've gotta go Mom."

"Call again soon Cassy, okay?"

God, he hated that nickname, "Yeah, bye!"

"Bye!" Castiel hung up, returned the the kitchen, and sat back down at the table, resuming his duties to make sure that Caity ate.

Caity slowly placed another bite into her mouth, as though it physically hurt her to eat the salad. She chewed and swallowed a couple more bites, trying to work up her courage to ask Castiel something. Finally, she decided to just go for it. Caity wiped her eyes and finished what the salad."Hey, Castiel?"

"Yeah?" He grunted.

"What do I get for eating this?"

"To live another day," When Castiel saw her frown, he relented. "Okay, what do you want?"

"To ask you a question. But you have to promise to answer."

Castiel had a bad feeling about this, but it was the least he could do after he forced her to eat. "Fine."

"Who was Gabby?"

"How do you know about Gabby?" Castiel angrily inquired.

Caity shrank back, "Rosa said something."

"She should've kept her mouth shut, that damn bitch!"

"Hey! Don't call my friend a bitch!"

"I can say whatever the hell I want, Caity! You don't control me!"

"And you don't control me!" By this time, both of them were standing up and facing each other across the table.

"I'm trying to keep you alive, you're prying into my business!"

"Oh, come on! You can't pull that card on me!"

"Well, I think that I just did!"

"You know about my issues, though, so I have the right to know yours. That's how it works."

"Not in my book, it doesn't."

"Trust goes both ways, dumbass! I trusted you with my biggest secrets, now you have to trust me with yours!"

Castiel's retort died on his tongue when he heard the end of her first sentence. "Did you just swear?"

Caity blushed bright red, "Why do you care?"

"I don't really, it's just so out of character for you."

"How do you know? I've only been here for a few days!"

Castiel stopped and looked down at the table. _Dammit! I hate it when I'm wrong!_ "Okay, okay. I get it. I'll tell you about Gabby if you agree to eat breakfast, lunch, and a snack after school tomorrow. And then go to your counseling session peacefully."

Caity was so excited that she got him to talk that she would've agreed to anything. "I will!"

They both sat back down and Castiel began his story. "Gabby was a new kid at the beginning of freshman year. I'd heard about her from various sources, but I didn't really pay much attention until I ran into her in the hallway…

 _I was in a rush to lunch because the idiotic math teacher had made me stay late to discuss my so called bad conduct in class. A girl was coming around a corner as I was rushing around it. She ran right into me and fell backwards, dropping her stuff everywhere. "Ow!" The girl exclaimed. She looked like she was going to say something else, but I beat her to the punch._

" _Watch where you're going!"_

 _I'd heard a lot from others about her shyness, so I wasn't expecting what came next. "Excuse me?!" Her voice was indignant._

" _I said, watch where you're going!" I repeated. Her unusual reply made me want to see what the body of this voice looked like. I gave her a once over and barely managed to stop myself from whistling. She was_ _ **hot**_ _! Her black hair hung down to her waist and her green eyes were filled with scorn, a look I knew all too well. The rest of her was perfectly proportioned and she looked like she would fit perfectly under my arm. I immediately shook that thought away, I was done with relationships._

" _Well, I was going to apologize, but now I think that you don't deserve it," she replied, finally getting all of her things together and snapping me out of my reverie._

" _You really think that I care about an apology?" I could not let this girl get away with talking to me like that. Even if she was hot. No! Bad brain! She's not hot! Repeat until true._

" _No, but it's common courtesy to apologize when you bump into someone. I was just going to do what any normal person would do." She huffed and turned to walk away. I found myself putting my hand on her shoulder, stopping her._

 _I smirked, "Congratulations! You managed to not completely piss me off in the first ten seconds after you bumped into me. Meet me in the stairwell after school. I have something to show you." I spun on my heel and headed towards the courtyard, leaving her standing there with her jaw open, in shock. What in the world possessed me to do that?_

"Well, whatever it was, I thank it every day. Gabby was one of the best things that ever happened to me."

"Am I one of the other things?" Caity batted her eyelashes at him.

"No."

"Aw, you're no fun!"

"Are you going to let me finish?"

"Yes! I'll stop talking! Continue please."

"Good, so, as I was saying, Gabby was one of the best things that ever happened to me. But also one of the worst. We got a lot closer and I found myself opening up to her, more than I had to anyone besides Lys. odd, unexplainable reason, I felt comfortable around her. And I liked her. I had a lot of fun with her, especially at the orienteering race. Remind me to tell you about that one sometime. Anyways, the point is, we were close, very close. Until the concert."

"What concert?"

"One that Lys, I, and a few others put on to raise money for the school after Gabby and I ruined the orienteering race. After the concert, my fucking ex decided to show up."

"Your ex?"

"Yeah, Deborah. That bitch manipulated me and the whole school except for Rosa, Lys, Armin, and Kentin against Gabby. Soon after that, Gabby disappeared and Rosa revealed the bitch's true nature to the school. I asked Lys about Gabby because she never came back. Lys told me that Gabby had a family emergency and had to go. He also gave me something from her. It was a CD."

"What was on it?"

"Gabby singing a Taylor Swift montage."

"Oh, Castiel!" Caity reached over and put her hand on his arm. He looked so broken.

As soon as her hand touched him, he pulled himself together. "I'm fine." His tone was bitter and hard.

"No, you're not." Caity stated.

"Yes, I am!"

"No. I should know, I have more issues than we are in debt to China." Castiel managed a small smirk at this. "It's okay to break down sometimes. Heaven knows it helps. I do to all the time."

"Crying's for girls and wimps." Even so, he started to crumble, finally letting all of his pent up emotions out.

Caity got up and walked around the table, wrapping her arms around her brother as he buried his face in his hands and started to cry. And then Caity was crying too. She cried for her brother and all that he's been through. She cried for her mom, who had to send away both of her children because she was still in love with their father. She cried for herself, too stubborn to admit that she needed help.

Castiel cried for Gabby and all that he subjected her to. He cried because he missed her. He cried for his sister and the issues that she is dealing with. He cried for his mom, that she's still with their father.

Finally, they both stopped crying and wiped their eyes. "I never thought I'd say this, but thanks, Caity. I needed that."

"You're welcome, Castiel. I also needed that."

Castiel looked at Caity and saw her red, puffy eyes and mascara running down her face. He started to chuckle.

"What's so funny?" Caity asked, confused.

"We-we just make quite the pair!" Castiel managed to say between peals of laughter.

Caity began to grin, "Yeah, we do. The girl with eating issues and the boy with a broken heart!"

Castiel joked, "Guess problems just run in the family!"

"Yup!" Now they were both full out laughing, laughing until their stomachs started to ache and a different kind of tears streamed down their faces.

Once they had both calmed down, Castiel was back to his usual self. "If you tell anyone at school about this, you're dead!" He told Caity.

"Don't worry! I'll make sure to tell everyone I see that you can actually smile, not just smirk!"

"You better not!" Castiel thundered.

Caity only giggled and headed upstairs to start her homework. _Ah, it's good to be back with my brother again. Even if he is_ __ _making me go to counseling tomorrow._

 **Thanks for reading! Don't forget to follow, fav, and review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Here's the next chapter! I've finally gotten it done. I'm lacking in motivation right now. Like, I have a plan for the story line, I just don't feel like writing. Anyways, read and enjoy!**

Caity got up the next morning and headed into the kitchen, mentally cursing herself for agreeing to Castiel's terms the day before. Then again, she did get to hear about Gabby in return. But she was not looking forward to eating breakfast, lunch, a snack after school, and going to counseling without complaint. A deal was a deal though. She had to do it. She decided that scrambled eggs and fruit would be the easiest to convince herself to eat so she set about making it.

Then, Castiel walked in. His eyebrows shot up in surprise, "You're actually going to hold up your side of the deal?"

Caity nodded, "Yup! Unlike _some people_ , I am actually capable of keeping my word."

Castiel caught the hidden insult. "Hey! I keep my word!"

"Ha! That's, of course, why you called every week like you promised, right?"

"Well, um…" Castiel knew that he had been beaten. "I keep my word most of the time." _Just not that particular time._

"You only keep your word when it benefits you or you can't get out of it." Caity stated as she scooped some scrambled eggs onto Castiel's plate and then onto hers.

Castiel just harrumphed and ate his breakfast. "You're appointment's at 3:30. I can drop you off, but I can't pick you up because of work." Castiel informed her around a mouthful of food.

Caity wrinkled her nose in disgust, but was too focused on what he said to comment on the disgusting sight she had just seen. "Who's going to pick me up, then?"

"Lysander."

"Lysander?" Caity squeaked. "Why not Rosa? Or even Alexy?"

"Because I mentioned my dilemma to Lysander and he volunteered. Why does it matter?"

Caity gulped, "Well, I don't really know him that well."

"He's my friend. He sings in a band with me. He is always losing and forgetting things. And he talks and acts as if he is from a different era. There, you know Lysander."

A sigh escaped Caity's lips as she methodically ate another spoonful for eggs, swallowing like it physically hurt her. It looked like there was no getting out of this one. Lysander was going to pick her up. She didn't have a choice.

Caity kept putting spoonfuls into her mouth, trying not to think about what she was doing. Half of what was originally on her plate had made its way into her mouth. Then, she tried to sneak some to Demon, Castiel's dog, but Castiel caught on and glared at her. She sheepishly shrugged and forced herself to eat the rest of it.

At school, Caity was ambushed by Rosa as soon as she walked through the door. "C'mon, Caity! I'm going to introduce you to the rest of the girls before the bell rings. And you are going to sit with us at lunch!" She grabbed Caity's arm and pulled her to a section of the hallway where a group of girls were talking. "Everyone, this is Caity!" Rosa announced with a flourish.

Caity waved awkwardly, "Hi."

"Hi, I'm Iris!" A girl with red hair, obviously named Iris, held her hand out for Caity to shake. Caity shook it and turned to the next girl that was introducing herself.

"I'm Melody! I'm a delegate on the student council!" She had brown hair and looked sweet.

"Nice to meet you!" Caity shook her hand.

"The name's Kim," An African American girl introduced herself.

Caity nodded, before turning to the last girl. She had purple hair and was holding a sketchbook. The girl looked up from the ground and mumbled something that sounded like the name Violette, but Caity wasn't sure so she looked to Rosa.

"That's Violette. She's just super shy." Rosa explained. "Anyways, this is the group!"

Caity nodded again and headed to her first class as the bell rang. It was a Tuesday so she had PE. She walked towards the gym, wondering if the breakfast that she ate was enough to get her through class. In the locker room, she found a corner and started to change. "OMG, like, what's wrong with you?" Amber walked over to her, "Like being that skinny can't like, be normal, right?"

"I'm fine," Caity's reply was quiet as she finished changing and started to stuff her things into her gym locker.

Amber walked back over to her friends, whispering something in one of their ears. That girl clasped a hand over her mouth and passed it on. Soon, the whole group of friends was wide eyeing each other. Caity noticed it, but was too focused on getting through PE to wonder what it was about.

Caity walked out of the locker room and into the gym. There, she scanned the room for people she knew. It looked like Kim was in this class. So was Violette and a few other girls that she didn't know. Caity looked at the boys standing on the other side of the gym, desperately hoping that by some miracle Castiel would be here. Of course, that didn't happen. But she did see Lysander. For some reason, he had a calming effect on her nerves. At least there was one person here that knew about her issues.

She felt two arms wrapping themselves around her waist and squeezing, snapping herself out of her train of thought.

"Yeah!" Alexy squealed. "You're in this class!"

"Hi, Alexy," Caity gasped. "Could you maybe let go so I can breathe?"

"Oops!" Alexy let go. "Sorry!"

"It's fine," Caity said, looking at the floor.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Alexy asked.

"Nothing!" Caity's quick reply only reaffirmed the fact the something was wrong.

"C'mon! You can tell me!"

"I am perfectly fine."

"I thought we were friends!" Alexy exclaimed, but Caity wasn't listening. She looking across the room to where Lysander was shooting her a quizzical look. Caity gave a small nod to show that she was okay. Lysander turned away after that and Caity felt safer knowing that Lysander was watching out for her. Don't get her wrong, Alexy would be too, except that he didn't know about her issues. "I didn't know that you knew Lysander!" Alexy noticed the exchange between the two.

"He's my brother's best friend." was Caity's simple explanation.

"Oh, right! So, do you like him?"

"Alexy!" Caity was shocked. _That came out of nowhere._

Fortunately for Caity, the teacher started to take role at that moment, so she didn't have to answer. The gym teacher, Boris, started to call out the kids names one by one and each kid shouted "Here!" when they heard their name. After that, he split them into two teams to play basketball. Caity, Lysander, some guys she didn't know, and some girls she didn't know we're on one team. On the other team was Amber and her possé, Alexy, and some other boys.

They did rock, paper, scissors to decide who would go first. Caity's team won so they got the ball and set up on one half of the gym. Caity was getting tired as they kept running back and forth across the gym. That's why she probably didn't notice that Amber was watching her closely, looking for an opening. She finally found one and delivered a well thought out jab to her side as she passed her.

Caity saw it coming, but her body didn't have enough reaction time. She watched it happen in what felt like slow motion. The force of the jab was enough to send someone as small as her flying. She hit the ground with a thud. Lysander was by her side in the blink of an eye, just shortly before Alexy got there. The gym teacher ran over too.

"Caity! Caity! Can you hear me?" Alexy started shaking her.

Lysander grabbed his hands, "Shaking her is just going to make it worse!" His voice was uncharacteristically snappy.

Alexy frowned, "Sorry! I'm just worried about her."

"It's okay. I'm just worried about her too." Lysander looked up at Boris from where he was kneeling next to Caity. "Is it alright if I take her to the nurse?" He wasn't sure what exactly it was about Caity that made him react like that.

Boris nodded, "Yes, that would be a good idea." He waved him off and turned to Amber. "Amber, that was unnecessary!"

Her eyes filled with fake tears, "I didn't mean to! I didn't think that it would hurt her that bad!"

Boris's face softened, "Just be more careful then, next time, okay?"

Amber sniffled as she nodded.

"What?! That's not fair! She did it on purpose!" Alexy exclaimed.

Boris looked at him, "Amber says she didn't mean to and there is no reason for me to believe otherwise."

"But- but! Ugh!" Alexy turned away, muttering under his breath, "Of course he believes Amber. He is such a suck up!"

"What was that?" Boris asked, narrowing his eyes at Alexy.

"Nothing!" Alexy replied, a little too innocently.

"That'd better be right! Now, everybody! Back to the game!"

Meanwhile, Lysander was carrying Caity to the nurse's office. "Lysander?" Caity's voice startled him. He thought that she had passed out.

"Yes?"

"Thank you." Her voice was barely there.

"You're welcome." Lysander responded.

At the nurse's office, Lysander carefully laid her on one of the ugly plastic beds and turned to the nurse.

"What happened to her?" The nurse questioned.

"She got elbowed pretty hard playing basketball."

"I keep telling them that they need to pick less harmful sports! Where was she hit?"

"In the side, below her ribs."

The nurse went to pull up her shirt before remembering that Lysander was still in there. "You can leave now. I'll take care of her from here."

Lysander nodded and left the room to return to class, not without a backwards glance though.

When he was safely out of the room, she looked back down at Caity and pulled her shirt up. The nurse gasped. This girl was skinny! Thankfully for Caity, that train of thought was quickly forgotten when she saw the ugly bruise already blooming on her side. She must've been elbowed hard!

Just then, Caity's eyes fluttered open. For a second, she wondered where she was. Then she remembered that Lysander carried her to the nurse's office. She struggled to focus when she realized that the nurse was talking to her.

"I'll just give you an ice pack and you should be fine in a couple of days! If it's not better by then, you can go see a doctor, okay?"

Caity nodded, holding the ice pack to her side. "Alrighty then, here's a pass and you can go to your next class!"

Once again, Caity nodded before returning to the locker room to change back and retrieve her books. On her way back to her locker to grab her lunch, Rosalya ambushed her.

"Come on! You have to come eat with us!" She started dragging her towards the lunch room.

"I need to get my lunch first!" Caity slipped out of her grasp and made her way to her locker, putting her books in and getting out her lunch box. She turned back around, hoping that Rosa hadn't followed her. To her chagrin, she saw that she had.

"You're not getting away from me now!" Rosa clamped down on her arm.

Caity frantically scanned the crowd around her, searching for Castiel. She knew that if she went with Rosa, there would be little chance that she would eat anything at all, which would be breaking her promise to Castiel and would make him mad. Luckily for Caity, Lysander was there to intervene.

"Rosa!" He removed her hand from Caity's arm. "I was sent by Castiel to collect Caity for him."

Rosalya shot him a puzzled look, "But Lys-baby, why would Castiel want to see his sister?"

Lysander had an answer ready, "Because he promised his mom that he would eat lunch with her every day to make sure that she was doing okay."

Rosa saw that he would not be swayed and huffily let Caity go with him. She watched them walk away with narrowed eyes. She was pretty sure that he was covering something up and Lys-baby almost **never** lied. There was something off about Caity. She just couldn't put a finger on it.

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	6. Chapter 6

Caity sat in the waiting room, her leg shaking out of nervousness. Castiel placed a hand on her leg. "Calm down! You're practically shaking the whole building."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one who has to go to counseling."

"It's going to help you, Caity."

She bit her lip, "I'm just not used to help. And I'm going to have to tell her things."

Castiel shook his head, exasperated. "Caity!"

The seriousness in his tone caused Caity to face him. "It's for your own good."

Caity nodded, knowing that he was right.

"Caity Stewart?" A professional looking woman with brown hair up in a bun and glasses opened a door.

"That's me," The said girl shakily stood up.

Castiel gave her a rough squeeze before lightly pushing her towards the woman. "You'll be fine. Remember, Lysander is going to pick you up."

Caity nodded and walked over to the counselor. The counselor held the door open for her and shut it behind them, gesturing for Caity to have a seat on the couch. Caity gingerly sat down on the couch, crossing her legs as she waited for the counselor to introduce herself.

"Hello, Caity! I'm Caroline." She held her hand out for Caity to shake.

Caity shook her hand, "Hi."

"Since we're going to spending a decent amount of time together in the upcoming weeks, why don't we get to know each other?"

Caity shrugged.

"Okay, do you want me to start?"

Caity nodded.

"I'm originally from a middle of nowhere town in Maine. I graduated as valedictorian in high school and in college. I got a degree in psychiatry in college. I first got into psychology in high school when I myself struggled with an eating disorder. After I conquered it, I decided that I wanted to help others overcome their own eating disorders. So here I am." Caroline finished with a smile. "Your turn now."

"I live with my brother Castiel and his giant dog named Demon."

"Is your brother the one who was in the waiting room with you?"

"Yes. I play piano and occasionally sing."

"Anything else?"

"Not really."

"Now that we know more about each other, let's get down to business. Why are you here?"

"Because Castiel says that I need help."

"Do you think that you need help?"

Caity looked down at the floor, "Yes."

"Wonderful! Recognizing that you need help is half the battle! Thanks for making my job easier."

"You're welcome?" Caity squirmed in her seat. She was not used to people acting like this around her.

"Now, you have to communicate with me, okay? None of this is going to work if you refuse to work with me."

"Okay," Caity was willing to do it. She wanted to feel normal again.

"When did you first start dieting and skipping meals?"

Caity gulped. She knew that she promised to talk to her, but she did NOT want to go into that.

Caroline looked at her, knowing that she'd start talking when she was ready.

"It started about six or seven months ago. I weighed about 110 pounds at the time," Caity started, with some difficulty. "I came home from school ready to murder somebody. I had gotten a test back and I hadn't gotten the best grade on it. I was tired of all the shallow girls that didn't understand why a C+ on a test was so bad. Then- then my dad ca- came home." She paused to take a deep breath. "He took one look at my- my test and removed his belt." At this point, Caity had tears streaming down her face. "I st- still have th- the sc- sca- scars."

Caroline watched, her face filled with compassion for the poor girl. At least she wasn't living with her father anymore.

Caity wiped her eyes, determined to finish the story. "While he was, um, disciplining me, he was calling me unworthy and useless. I resolved to become worthy and useful. That's when I started trying to lose weight."

"Can I give you a hug?" Caroline asked.

"Yeah," Caity answered, letting Caroline wrap her arms around her. Caity leaned into the embrace; it had been too long since someone had hugged her like that. Like her mother used to. Just thinking about her mom made Caity tear up again. How she missed her!

Caroline pulled back a smiled at the teenager, albeit a little sadly. _This girl has been through some really tough stuff. It's no wonder that she turned to hunger._

Caity's gaze returned to the floor. She was embarrassed by her display of emotion. Caity hated crying, especially in front of other people. What made this time even worse was that she barely knew the person she had just poured out her heart to.

Caroline knew that this was the time in the session where she usually would discuss treatment options, but she wasn't sure that Caity was ready for that yet. She obviously had some deep-seated self worth issues and family problems. The best that she could do for Caity right now was prescribe an antidepressant and keep her talking. That way they could get to the very root of the problem and start to fix it from there.

She scribbled a prescription on a piece of paper and handed it to Caity, "This is for an antidepressant. It will help with your negative thoughts and regulate the chemicals in your brain that are causing you to feel like this. Normally, my patients come in once a week. But in your case, I think it'd be best if you came in three days a week. Would Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays work for you?"

Caity nodded mutely, still embarrassed from her earlier display.

"Okay, then! I'll see you tomorrow, since it's a Wednesday!"

Caity mumbled a goodbye and headed back into the waiting room, her eyes scanning the room for Lysander. When they landed on him, she let out an audible sigh of relief. She needed to get out of there.

Lysander stood up and quickly closed the distance between the two of them, concern etched across his features. "Are you okay?" He softly asked.

Caity managed a small smile and a nod. "Yeah." Lysander didn't believe her, but he still led her out of the office and to his car after she checked out and got a card reminding her of her next appointment. He opened the passenger side of his Toyota Corolla. Caity got in, wondering how in the world Lysander managed to fit in his own car.

"You can put your address in the GPS," Lysander said.

"Um, actually I have a prescription. Would you mind stopping at a pharmacy first?"

"Not at all. Instead of your address, can you put in the address to the pharmacy?"

Caity giggled, Sweet Amoris literally had one café, a dollar shop, a clothing store, a park, a grocery store, a pharmacy, an apartment building, and a couple of developments. Only Lysander was capable of getting lost there. She did as he requested, though, and plugged the address into his GPS.

At the pharmacy, Caity gave her prescription to the lady at the desk and was told that it would be ready in an hour. She turned to Lysander, an apology written all over her face. "If it's okay, could you wait an hour? I have no other way to get it."

Before the words were even out of her mouth, Lysander was nodding his head. "Yes, I don't mind. Also, when was the last time you ate?" He inquired politely.

"After school," Caity replied.

"It's about five o'clock now, so why don't I take you out for something to eat?"

"No, that's okay. You don't have to. I can just get something to snack on." Caity bit her bottom lip; she didn't want him inconveniencing himself for her.

"No, I insist. We don't want you passing out, do we?" Lysander asked with a bit of a smile, taking the offense of his words.

"I guess not," Caity sighed. _Looks like I'm not getting out of this one_.


	7. Chapter 7

Cathy and Lysander entered the café. There weren't really many choices for eating out in Sweet Amoris and the café was by far the best. Lysander and Caity stepped in line to order. Lysander ordered a coffee and he made sure that Caity got something substantial. She ended up ordering a small, fruit filled pastry and a hot chocolate.

"No coffee?" Lysander asked, eyebrows raised.

"Nope," Caity shook her head vehemently. "I detest coffee."

Lysander nodded, accepting the reply. After all, different people had different tastes. "The opposite of Castiel, then."

"Yup! I have no idea how he stands that stuff. It's basically like his drug."

The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, content to just relax and think. Lysander thought about how to get Caity to open up to him. He could tell that she needed to discuss the counseling visit with someone and, in absence of her twin, he would have to do. For some odd reason, he felt himself compelled to help this broken girl. Maybe it was just in his destiny to help the Stewart siblings. Or maybe this was the start of something entirely different than just friendship. Either way, Caity needed help. And he was prepared to provide just that.

Meanwhile, Caity was thinking along the same lines. She barely knew Lysander and yet he already knew about her anorexia and had helped her out. There was just something about him that made her feel safe and normal again. And something inside her told her that he could be trusted. Possibly because of the fact that Castiel trusted him. Or else it was women's intuition. Whatever the reason, she needed to talk to somebody and he was the best choice.

"I'm ready to talk."

Lysander nodded, waiting for her to speak.

Caity took a deep breath before beginning, "I-" she choked up. "Sorry." She stared at the pastry. _I can't do this. I can't do this. I need to stop thinking that. But I can't. I'm so stupid, how could I think I was ready? I'll never be ready. I need to stop thinking._

Without her realizing it, tears had begun to stream down her face. Caity covered her face with her hands. _Oh my goodness, I am such an idiot. I'm probably gonna scare Lysander away now._

The said teen gently place his hands over hers and pulled them away until he could see her tear filled, stormy gray eyes.

Caity avoided eye contact and stared at her pastry.

"Caity, look at me." Slowly, she met his intense gaze. "You don't have to tell me. Not until you're ready."

She nodded, her cheeks flushing red with embarrassment as she once again tried to evade his all-seeing eyes.

Lysander knew that it was time to get out of there, "Come on, your medicine is probably ready now." He helped her up after paying for the meal and they drove back to the pharmacy.

In the line at the pharmacy, a splash of purple caught Caity's attention. _Is that- is that Violette?_ Sure enough, it was her, directly in front of them in line accompanied by someone who Caity assumed to be her dad. Luckily, she didn't notice Caity.

When it was Violette's turn, Caity let out a gasp as she caught a glimpse of the medication. It was the same one she was there for! Of course, that didn't mean that she was anorexic also, it just meant that she struggled with some form of depression.

At Caity's gasp, Violette turned around. As soon as she saw Caity, she made a beeline for the exit. "Wait!" Caity called out, chasing her.

Violette looked back, giving Caity enough time to hold up her own prescription that she had just picked up. Then it was Violette's turn to be shocked. "We have- we have the same medication?"

"Well, it sure appears that way," Caity smiled at her, wanting to put her at ease now that she herself was. Anyone who would remotely understand her was alright in her books. "Mine's for anorexia nervosa." She took a leap of faith, hoping against hope that she wasn't wrong when she labeled Violette a kindred spirit.

To her relief, Violette's lips gradually turned upwards forming a small smile that increased into a full out grin. She wasn't expecting anyone else, much less Castiel's twin sister, to deal with something like she did. "Mine's for depression," she softly replied.

Caity nodded, surprising even herself when she pulled Violette into a hug. _Finally! Someone who can relate to me!_

Violette was thinking along the same lines. _Yes! A friend! One who I can talk to about my issues!_

The two girls held on to each other like they were each other's lifelines. They had found someone to be there for them.

Lysander watched the scene unfold, the corners of his lips tilted upwards. _Those two will be good for each other. Even though I wish that I could do something to help her myself._ If only he knew that just his presence was a help to Caity.


End file.
